UW-Madison, two-year campuses to increase associate degree holdersMilwaukee Journal SentinelJuly 29, 2015A unique agreement between the state's flagship university, its public two-year colleges and a Madison technical college aims to increase the number of residents who hold at least an associate degree. The new "reverse transfer" agreement will allow students who transfer to the flagship before completing an associate degree to complete the requirements and pick up that degree while also working toward a bachelor's degree.

Pixar's 'Inside Out' Reminds Us to Manage Emotions by Training Our BrainHuffington PostJuly 24, 2015If you could look at your own personality, which emotion leads others in managing your mind’s control room? Joy? Fear? Disgust? Anger? Sadness?Through the lens of the new Pixar movie "Inside Out", Joy calls the shots in the mind of the 11-year-old protagonist named Riley. In fact, this positive emotion -- personified by actress Amy Poehler -- finds it hard to step aside when other emotions are in many ways more appropriate for the situations Riley finds herself in, including moving to a new city and navigating school and friends.

Brain Scans Reveal How Poverty Hurts Children's BrainsBloomberg BusinessJuly 21, 2015Growing up poor has long been linked to lower academic test scores. And there’s now mounting evidence that it’s partly because kids can suffer real physical consequences from low family incomes, including brains that are less equipped to learn.

UW-Madison researchers invent a metal-free fuel cellEngadgetJuly 17, 2015The development of fuel cell technology has been hamstrung by the need for expensive and difficult-to-manufacture catalysts like platinum, rhodium or palladium. But a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison believe they’ve found an ingenious alternative that employs a molecular, rather than solid, catalyst.

Pevehouse & Powers: Do Americans think strategically when they think about trade?Washington PostJuly 16, 2015A key talking point in the Obama Administration’s efforts to convince Congress and the public to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a proposed trade and investment treaty between the U.S. and 12 nations in the Asia Pacific region, now being negotiated—is that the U.S. needs to “write the rules” of trade in the Asia Pacific region before China does. Obama warned in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal that China would be able to “muscle other countries in the region around rules that disadvantage us” if the United States fails to participate in the TPP.

Boy, 11, killed in bike crash was budding jazz pianist, loved current eventsMadison.comJuly 15, 2015Matthew Court was killed while biking to daily swim team practice. His father, Ricardo Court, is director of undergraduate studies for the political science department at UW-Madison. His wife and Matthew’s mother, Kristin Phillips-Court, is an associate professor of French and Italian at the university.

UW-Madison's Games Learning Society conference explores gaming in the classroomCapital TimesJuly 13, 2015With the technology boom over the past decade, more teachers across the nation are taking a digital approach to their lesson plans. At this week’s 11th annual gaming conference hosted by the UW’s Games+Learning+Society department, participants were able to take a look at how games are used as a teaching tool.

UW study: women-owned businesses provide growth opportunities for WisconsinMilwaukee Business JournalJuly 9, 2015<p class="content__segment">A <a class="saveLink" href="http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/wi/madison/university_of_wisconsin-madison/3230589">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> study has found that increasing the amount of women-owned businesses in Wisconsin could be an economic growth and development opportunity.</p>
<p class="content__segment">As of 2011 in Wisconsin, women owned or managed more than 80,000 businesses, employed over 550,000 workers and earned $45 billion in sales, according to the study's authors, <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/search/results?q=Tessa%20Conroy">Tessa Conroy</a> and <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/search/results?q=Steven%20Deller">Steven Deller</a>. However, there is a significant lack of women-owned businesses in Wisconsin compared with those owned by men.</p>

New organ preservation technique could replace UW SolutionWisconsin State JournalJuly 7, 2015For decades, surgeons around the country have preserved organs in a cold solution as the organs are shipped in coolers to transplant recipients hundreds of miles away. Developed at UW Hospital, the fluid is known simply as “UW Solution.” Now, UW Hospital and other transplant centers are looking at a different way to keep organs healthy outside of the body: pumping them with blood at or just below body temperature.

Seeking happiness at work? Try these simple practicesTODAY ShowJuly 7, 2015A recent Gallup poll found that a mere 13 percent of us actually enjoy the time we spend on the job. And there's a real cost to that, not just to our emotional state, but also to our health, experts say.
But we can turn all that around just by adopting some simple practices to make our work lives happier and, as an added bonus, our bodies healthier, experts say.
"There's now overwhelming evidence to indicate that happier people are actually healthier," Dr. Richard J. Davidson, a "positive psychologist," professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as founder and chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, told TODAY. "I would say that anyone can learn to be happier at work."

College law enforcement administrators hear approach to make Title IX more effectiveInside Higher EducationJuly 6, 2015NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The intersection of campus police investigations and college disciplinary investigations into sexual assault is still a confusing mix at many institutions, but Susan Riseling, the chief of police and associate vice chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has a few ideas about how make the relationship work.

The Wheels on Your Car Could One Day Recharge It As They RollGizmodoJuly 1, 2015Regenerative braking systems are already used in electric cars to help recapture energy that’s wasted while the vehicle is stopping. But researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have also found a way to generate power while a vehicle is actually driving.

Tenure at UW System now seen as bellwether by educators across U.S.Milwaukee Journal SentinelJuly 1, 2015With more voices joining the highly charged debate over tenure protections in the University of Wisconsin System, it has become increasingly clear that at least in education circles, what's happening here is perceived as a bellwether for public universities across the country.

How NASA Used X-Rays to Pinpoint a Distant StarTIMEJune 24, 2015“It’s really hard to get accurate distance measurements in astronomy and we only have a handful of methods,” says Sebastian Heinz of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who led the study. “But just as bats use sonar to triangulate their location, we can use the X-rays from Circinus X-1 to figure out exactly where it is.”

Fitbit use tied to increase in activityReutersJune 19, 2015Postmenopausal women who are given an activity level goal for the week end up getting more activity when using a Fitbit than a traditional pedometer, according to a new study.

Women go behind the scenes of Badgers football for good causeChannel3000.comJune 24, 2015(Video) Football 101 is a fun evening for women to go behind the scenes of Badger football, in the locker room and on the field at Camp Randall Stadium. The event is a fundraiser for Susan G. Komen South Central Wisconsin.

Dekker working towards life in NBAWKOW TVJune 24, 2015500 shots a day. That's what former Badgers forward Sam Dekker estimates he's been putting up since he began training for the NBA. "It's been a grind. Time has flown through even since the end of the season," Dekker said.

Kathy Cramer: A Wisconsin IdeaIsthmusJune 22, 2015For the past seven summers, UW professor Kathy Cramer has visited rural gas stations, small cafes and bait shops on off-the-beaten-path county highways that snake their way around the state. In those places, she interviews the locals who gather on weekday mornings.

Building With LEGO Kit Instructions Makes Kids Less CreativePsychology TodayJune 17, 2015A paper in the Journal of Marketing Research by Page Moreau of the Wisconsin School of Business and Marit Gundersen Engeset of Buskerud and Vestfold University in Kongsberg, Norway asks a question we've all pondered at some point: Is it better for kids to free-build with LEGOs or to follow the instructions of kits?

Rebecca Blank: UW should have same or better tenure as peersWisconsin State JournalJune 15, 2015"Recent action by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee has the potential to threaten that longstanding commitment to fearless inquiry. I am worried about the risk this creates for UW-Madison, by alienating and demoralizing the faculty who have built this into one of the world’s finest education and research institutions. Abrupt changes to tenure and shared governance — another historic underpinning of UW-Madison — could drive away the people we most need to attract and retain. That these changes are being recommended without public discussion or consultation from those who will be most affected adds to our collective concern."

Nicholas family gives $50M for scholarships, 2nd largest gift of its kind at UW-MadisonMadison.comJune 12, 2015The UW Foundation announced on Friday that the Nicholas family committed $50 million this week for scholarships to undergraduates, student-athletes and graduate students. The gift is the second-largest household gift in UW-Madison’s history, second only to the $100 million gift from John and Tashia Morgridge in December to help build faculty at the university.